Well, that headline must've been met with both a warm fuzzy feeling of nostalgia, and a sudden, stab-like wound on the back of many readers. The usage of Valve and Half-Life together in the same sentence has been the victim of multiple memes and disappointments over the years, with the studio being seemingly unable to keep up with the mantle of great games it has released before in the Half-Life universe. Half-Life 3 is already so much of a failed expectation that the game could (likely) never live up to the expectations set on it at this point in time. It seems valve is shrugging the game away with a Half-Life set VR game, though, in the form of Half-Life: Alyx.

Valve itself have posted a teaser image on Twitter, announcing it as a flagship VR game available for SteamVR. To be unveiled on November 21st, nothing much is known about the game by now; but it's expected it will be a VR-exclusive experience. The game started out as a single-player exploration experience for VR, and it seems to have found its way developed into a full-fledged game. Apparently, this Half-Life: Alyx game is the first in Valve's plans of releasing more VR games in the future, which may or may not be set in the Half-Life universe. This could actually be an interesting experience for VR, if you can get beyond the usual betrayal of not seeing an announcement for Half-Life 3. Who knows - this could even be the killer app for VR, or an Half-Life renaissance in the minds of gamers and Valve themselves. At the very least, we know it will induce nostalgia.

With how shitty the library UI change is from Valve, I have zero faith they they could even remember how to make a game.

Last I tried the new Library UI, just a few days ago, it's still eating lots of extra RAM, sluggish, meet with black screens, plagued with one of the ugliest layouts I've seen for a game library, forced update/ads (or whatever you want to call them) in the "What's New" shelf that you cannot remove, hang ups and crashes still happening....

Will people actually believe they can make a game without it turning out like crap?

With how shitty the library UI change is from Valve, I have zero faith they they could even remember how to make a game.

Last I tried the new Library UI, just a few days ago, it's still eating lots of extra RAM, sluggish, meet with black screens, plagued with one of the ugliest layouts I've seen for a game library, forced update/ads (or whatever you want to call them) in the "What's New" shelf that you cannot remove, hang ups and crashes still happening....

Will people actually believe they can make a game without it turning out like crap?

I've used a couple VR devices and enjoyed them, though I'm not inclined to buy one - simply not something in the budget.

The problem I have is that a simple (compared to building/coding/designing a game) UI change can break so many aspect of their game launching client doesn't bode well in me having faith they can properly design a game anymore.

What kind of fuck up does it take to make a launcher where it causes game to crash/fail to launch when you click on the "Play" button?
Or the client itself constantly hangs and crashes?
Or the memory leak that hasn't been fixed yet?
Or the failure for images to load up and display properly?

If their redesign and horrific implementation of the updated UI on their digital platform is any indication of what kind of talent they're hiring/keeping/using.....just think of what you can expect from them trying to make a new game, especially one they want to hype using the Half-Life name tied to it.

If you want to kiss Valve's butt and defend them tooth and nail, by all means, do so. I'm not going to give them any kind of hope of success anymore until they can actually prove it.

Oh, crap. Now I need to figure out where to borrow Vive w/ controllers for this one. I have access to OSVR, but if Valve goes the old route (e.g. The Lab) - there will be no comfortable way to play on the controller.

A lot of people can't or don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for VR, especially when they've spent that money on high-end computers.
A lot of people experience nausea using VR.
A lot of people don't find VR immersive enough, what with the wires, and having to stay in a tiny playable zone, and the weight of the equipment, and how it makes you sweat...

I've tried VR (my friend owned a Vive, now has an Index) and I don't enjoy it. That doesn't make me a "hater". But your whiny little rant does make you look like a twelve-year-old who's on the internet way past his bedtime. Shouldn't you go kiss mommy goodnight?

A lot of people can't or don't want to pay hundreds of pounds for VR, especially when they've spent that money on high-end computers.
A lot of people experience nausea using VR.
A lot of people don't find VR immersive enough, what with the wires, and having to stay in a tiny playable zone, and the weight of the equipment, and how it makes you sweat...

I've tried VR (my friend owned a Vive, now has an Index) and I don't enjoy it. That doesn't make me a "hater". But your whiny little rant does make you look like a twelve-year-old who's on the internet way past his bedtime. Shouldn't you go kiss mommy goodnight?

Don't bother, you're a conservative technologically illiterate hater if you don't drool all over anything VR related. On a more serious note I see this dude praise VR with a bizarre militant attitude literally everywhere on this forum when the matter is brought up and insult anyone who doesn't share his fetish for it so don't try to argue with him.

VR requires a very good setup and consistent frame rate. Lags can be very jarring, movement mechanisms are also very important, I have found using a non-vr controller (xbox) to play in a vr game to be very jarring and I nearly fell over. I love my vive but the screen is not hd enough and can cause eye fatigue over a couple of hours usage.

Given valve made the-lab I trust they know how to do VR properly.
The HTC-pro was kinda meh and I am glad valve went their own way.

but 12 year olds don't know the hole I have in my lyfe! I got HL2 with my X850XTPE WAY back in duh day. I'd guess most 12 year olds or even most would even know what that was... LOL but I am still waiting for an ending the HL2. oh well I am not alone on this.

Less than 24hrs and 15 minutes until the announcement! Tyler McVicker is streaming on Twitch if you want a reaction type video. The biggest thing I'm looking for from HLA is the interaction and story. I can remember how lifelike the characters were in HL2 and the whole vibe of the city. What is everyone looking forward to from HLA?